Justice in India. WTF!

Was searching for this video for a long time. An example of quick justice when someone steals a gold chain in India. Amazing. Jai ho ! WTF!

Tryst with destiny

Jawaharlal Nehru’s speech

World’s poor = $13 trillion

C. K. Prahalad identifies the world’s poor (the “bottom of the pyramid”) as a mostly untapped market for companies, worth up to $13 trillion a year in revenues. In his words, “the real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time.” In his TED talk, Dr. Prahalad warned against “learning disabilities” on the part of companies, leading to mistakes, such as mistaking current profits for leadership, and unwillingness to face up to capability gaps. He seems to be saying that the answer lies in democratizing technology, communication, and learning, such that everybody from the top to the bottom will know what’s going on.

A display of compassion at TEDIndia

TEDIndia is an international conclave of achievers, thinkers and speakers and this year (2009) it was held in Mysore, India. I found this in the blog of www.shambhalasun.com. You can read the complete article here.

Sunitha Krishnan brought the house down in Mysore today. And by that, I mean that she broke hearts and moved people to action. The audience listened painfully to some of the stories of the more than 3,200 girls she has rescued, girls who had endured unimaginable torture and yet, somehow, nevertheless found the will to heal and thrive. She spoke of the need for everyone to overcome silence about the phenomenon of human trafficking, the modern form of slavery, and for us not only to offer our love and compassion to its victims, but to be willing to accept them in our communities. She admitted that rescuing girls is never a very safe business, sharing that she can no longer hear out of her right ear, and that she has been beaten up during interventions more than a dozen times. Her strong voice and powerful body language ensured that no one could claim to have misunderstood her points.

During her post-presentation interview with TEDIndia’s co-host, Lakshmi Pratury, Ms. Krishnan had just finished describing a wish for Prajwala to have permanent property to establish its headquarters in India (due to social stigmatization, Prajwala is charged extraordinarily high rent for office and work space). At that moment, a woman (whose name I will try to report here when I find it) called out from the audience, “Excuse me. I’d like to give ten thousand [US] dollars. Could I please have eight other hands of people who will also give ten thousand dollars?” Several hands sprung to the air within seconds. Ms. Pratury, later in the day, would also report that Google had pledged to offer employment to some of Ms. Krishnan’s rescuees, and that at least $100,000 in donations to Prajwala had been pledged.

Get an insight into Sunitha’s work. View the video.

Click here to know more about TEDIndia.

A speech for every Indian

I think the following speech by APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India is a must read for every Indian. It is worth your time.

This speech was delivered at Hyderabad in 2008. (If anyone has details about the location and the exact date, please post it in the comments)

I have three visions for India. In 3000 years of our history people from all over the world have come and invaded us, captured our lands, conquered our minds. From Alexander onwards, the Greeks, the Turks, the Moguls, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Dutch, all of them came and looted us, took over what was ours. Yet we have not done this to any other nation.

We have not conquered anyone. We have not grabbed their land, their culture, and their history and tried to enforce our way of life on them. Why? Because we respect the freedom of others, that is why my first vision is that of FREEDOM. I believe that India got its first vision of this in 1857, when we started the war of independence. It is this freedom that we must protect and nurture and build on. If we are not free, no one will respect us.

My Second vision for India is DEVELOPMENT. For fifty years we have been a developing nation. It is time we see ourselves as a developed nation. We are among top 5 nations of the world in terms of GDP. We have 10 percent growth rate in most areas. Our poverty levels are falling. Our achievements are being globally recognized today. Yet we lack the self-confidence to see ourselves as a developed nation, self-reliant and self-assured. Isn't this incorrect?

I have a THIRD vision, India must stand up to the world. Because I believe that unless India stands up to the world, no one will respect us. Only strength respects strength. We must be strong not only as a military power but also as an economic power. Both must go hand-in-hand. My good fortune was to have worked with three great minds. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai of the Department of space, Professor Satish Dhawan, who succeeded him and Dr. Brahm Prakash father of nuclear material. I was lucky to have worked with all three of them closely and consider this the great opportunity of my life.

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice. Look at Dr. Sudarshan; he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was reading the Israeli newspaper. It was this day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck.

But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert and into an orchid and a granary. It was the inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news. In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE?

I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14-year-old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is: she replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim.

India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation. Allow me to come back with vengeance. Got 10 minutes for your country? YOU say that out Government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke, the airline is the worst in the world, and mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say. What do YOU do about it? 

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give Him a name ? YOURS. Give him a face ? YOURS. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your international best. 

In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground Links as they are. You pay $5 (approx.Rs.225/-) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU comeback to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity.

In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an
employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.900/-) a month to, "see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else. "YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 kmph) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, "Jaanta Hai sala main kaun hoon (do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.

"YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand. Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston? We are still talking of the same YOU. YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. 

If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country why cannot you be the same here in India?

Once in an interview, the famous Ex-municipal commissioner of Bombay Mr. Tinaikar had a point to make. "Rich people's dogs are walked on the streets to leave their affluent droppings all over the place," he said. "And then the same people turn around to criticize and blame the authorities for inefficiency and dirty pavements. What do they expect the officers to do? Go down with a broom every time their dog feels
the pressure in his bowels?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan. Will the Indian citizen do that here?" He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility.

We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use
of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff who is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, girl child and others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse?" It's the whole system, which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my son's rights to a dowry. "So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbours, other households, other cities, other communities and the government. But definitely not me and YOU.

When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to The system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand. Or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experience unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country. Nobody thinks of feeding the system.
Our conscience is mortgaged to money. 

Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a Great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too. 

J.F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians?..
"ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY"

Where's My Nobel Prize?

By Chetan Bhagath, Times of India, Oct 24, 2009

The recent news of a person of Indian origin winning the Nobel prize while based abroad sparked off a series of discussions at home. "Why don't we win Nobel prizes here?" became the question of the week. The standard points were raised: we don't have the facilities, too much government interference, the selection process is rigged, the prize committee is racist and, finally, who cares about the Nobel anyway (of course we do, that's why we discuss it).

Like all media stories, this one too will die soon. However, maybe it is time to look at the core issue: why India doesn't excel on the world stage on a fairly consistent basis. We don't win a significant number of Olympic medals, we don't create global brands, our IT industry is essentially a job transfer model but we haven't created even one Google, Facebook or Twitter. (Of course, there is plenty for Indians to be proud of otherwise, so please don't jump on me because of my observations.)

The real issue comes down to the treatment of talent in our country. So, what is talent? Talent refers to a special ability and aptitude that give people an edge in a particular field. In sport, science, films, business or the arts, people who dominate the world stage all have a gift that makes it easier for them to excel. Of course, along with talent there is preparation, hard work and a certain amount of luck required to achieve success. However, talent is usually a necessary ingredient. Talent is rare, and randomly distributed across the human population, irrespective of pedigree, connections or wealth. Some may call talent an unfair gift. However, it is talent that allows ordinary people to come up in life. Otherwise, rich people would stay rich and poor people poor. Thus, this unfair talent actually makes the world fairer.

However, we don't put talent on the highest pedestal in our country. Talent's stature is below that of someone with connections, hereditary entitlement, pedigree or even experience. If i were to tell you that an unknown boy from Agra will become the next superstar, versus a star's son becoming the next star, the latter story is much easier to digest. Even in an IIT, a truly gifted young faculty cannot jump ranks and scales set by the system. And the people designing the system never took talent into account. Even when talent is identified, we are unable to train it, and find it difficult to reward it.

It is difficult to say why we have this attitude, but there are many possible reasons. One, talent conflicts with the traditional Indian caste system. Two, Indian cultural values revere the older generation and its experience, and talent zooms past it. Finally, the 'tall poppies syndrome', an already existing term used in Australia and UK to "describe a societal phenomenon in which people of genuine merit are criticised or resented because their talents or achievements elevate them above or distinguish them from their peers". Ask yourself, have you seen some of this in India? Maybe because so many dreams have been crushed in India, someone else's success reminds us of our own pain. The US (only as a contrasting example, not recommending we become like them) has an opposite value system. Talent is respected, seen as something to be emulated. That is why they have teenage boy bands and college dropouts who open dotcoms as national icons. We don't.

There are grave negative repercussions for a community that doesn't respect talent. It leads to a society where connected people do better than people with ability. It leads to a lot of talent being unused, a tremendous waste of a national resource. It causes frustration in the entire new generation as they see people with less capability doing better than them. It also reinforces the old Indian values of fatalism and the helpless-common-man theory. And it means India's excellent people may not excel worldwide to the extent possible.

So what can be done? Well, we definitely can do something both at the macro organisational level and a micro individual level.

At the organisational level, we have to let go of corporate hierarchies and the lifelong promotion ladders of government, particularly in talent-dependent organisations like R&D, companies requiring high innovation or sport. We have to make incentives in line with what attracts talent, as there is a global battle for it. Exceptional talent demands exceptional reward. We have to take away the moral judgement associated with rewarding talent. Just as it is morally okay for a rich man's son to be rich, a person with talent also deserves to do really well.

Change needs to happen amongst us, at the individual level as well. We have to acknowledge that talent exists, and we need to respect it. Frankly, isn't it better a talented person gets rewarded than a minister's son? Talent shouldn't cause resentment, it should become an inspiration. I think the young generation is already on board with that. It needs the older generation's support to make this change in values. It may be difficult, but it is worth it.

Because if we do become a talent-driven country, we will become a more progressive nation, utilise the new generation's skills properly, become a fairer society and, along the way, win a few Nobel prizes too.

Jaago re - I

India’s 20 greatest films

1. Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960, Bengali), directed by Ritwik Ghatak

Story of a self-sacrificing woman who puts her wedding on hold because she is the sole breadwinner of a refugee family that barely ekes out a living in Calcutta.

2. Charulata (1964, Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray

Charulata is a loose adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore's Noshto Neer, set against the backdrop of the reform movement in 19th century Bengal. Among all his films, Charulatha was Ray’s favorite.

3. Pather Panchali (1955, Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray

The film focussed on a poverty-stricken family in rural Bengal, it underscored the invincibility of the human spirit and the magical beauty of the landscape juxtaposed against the misery of the characters that populate it.

4. Sholay (1975, Hindi), directed by Ramesh Sippy

A hugely successful adventure flick that drew upon conventions of the Western to deliver a pure Bollywood movie experience that remains unmatched to this day.

5. Do Bigha Zameen (1953, Hindi), directed by Bimal Roy

This is a tragic drama about a small farmer who is compelled by indebtedness to relocate to the big city and become a rickshaw-puller. Do Bigha Zameen, which exposes the vice-like grip that ruthless zamindars/moneylenders have on agriculture in this country, is generally regarded as one of the earliest and finest examples of "neo-realism" in Indian cinema.

6. Pyaasa (1957, Hindi), directed by Guru Dutt

Inspired by Saratchandra's novel, Srikanta, Guru Dutt's Pyaasa is the story of poet who has no takers in a nation overrun by philistinism. The cinematic mastery on display in Pyaasa has rarely been replicated in mainstream Hindi cinema.

7. Bhuvan Shome (1969, Hindi), directed by Mrinal Sen

This small Film Finance Corporation-funded satire was Mrinal Sen's big national-level break. Many also regard it as the film that marked the beginning of the New Indian Cinema movement.

8. Garam Hawa (1973, Urdu), directed by MS Sathyu

Set in Agra, the story is about an elderly shoe manufacturer and his family who are faced with a crucial question: should they continue to live in India or migrate to the newly-formed state of Pakistan? The prospects are daunting and there is little hope of a future in a climate of distrust and hate.

9. Mother India (1957, Hindi), directed by Mehboob Khan

One of the greatest films ever made in this country, Mother India rightly enjoys the status of a timeless epic. In its grand narrative, it captures aspects of Nehruvian India that are both positive and negative.

10. Ghatashraddha (1973, Kannada), directed by Girish Kasaravalli

Based on a story by UR Ananthamurthy, the film is set in an orthodox 1920s Brahmin village in Karnataka. It chronicles the travails of a child widow as seen through the eyes of a boy.

11. Elippathayam (1973, Malayalam), directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Adoor Gopalakrishnan's most accomplished film, traces the last legs of a decaying feudal order In Kerala. It revolves around Unni, a middle-aged man who cannot pace with the changing world around him.

12. Mughal-e-Azam (1960, Urdu), directed by K Asif

a blockbuster to beat all blockbusters, blending style, panache and substance. This historical romance tells the apocryphal love story of Prince Salim (Dilip Kumar) and commoner Anarkali (Madhubala). They face opposition from all quarters, including Emperor Akbar (Prithviraj Kapoor), and Anarkali dies to save the prince.

13. Nayakan (1987, Tamil), directed by Mani Ratnam

Nayakan, by far the greatest underworld dramas ever made in India, catapulted Mani Ratnam to the big league. The film was a riveting, if controversial, fictionalisation of the life and times of real-life Bombay mafia don Varadarajan Mudaliar.

14. Kaagaz Ke Phool (1962, Hindi), directed by Guru Dutt

Guru Dutt's most melancholic film ever, takes his deepening disillusionment with the world and its guardians to a new level of despair.

15. Apur Sansar (1959, Bengali), directed by Satyajit Ray

A superbly crafted, expertly modulated human drama, the film tracks the voyage of a boy turning into a man in a tough environment and it does so with unmatched empathy and perspicuity.

Taken together, Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar constitute one of the greatest cinematic achievements the world has ever seen.

16. Sant Tukaram (1936, Marathi), directed by Damle & Fatehlal

A film that has outlived all others made in the 1930s, Sant Tukaram was an outstanding recreation of the life and times of the 17th century poet-saint.

17. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1980, Hindi), directed by Kundan Shah

This dark, cocky satire about amoral politicians and avaricious businessmen is the greatest advertisement for FTII that there has ever been.

18. Guide (1965, Hindi), directed by Vijay Anand

This is a sweeping drama about a tourist guide who rescues a wannabe dancer from a loveless marriage to an archaeologist and helps her achieve stardom. He makes money in the bargain but is convicted for forgery. When he returns from jail, he wanders about the countryside and is mistaken for a holy man. His messianic halo is strengthened when he starves himself to death in order to end a dry spell in a drought-hit area.

19. Madhumati (1958, Hindi), directed by Bimal Roy

This classic reincarnation story scripted by Ritwik Ghatak was the biggest commercial success of Bimal Roy's varied directorial career. The stars, Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, play multiple roles alternating between the present and a past life.

20. Anand (1970, Hindi), directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee

A terminally ill hero is determined to make the most of the remaining months of his life. In one of his early starring roles, Amitabh Bachchan played a Bengali doctor who develops a deep emotional connect with the dying man.

This list emerged from the 'T20 of Indian Cinema' poll of NDTV in which 20 experts from around the country - 10 young filmmakers and 10 seasoned critics and scholars – participated.

Related links

Read the original post here

Satyagraha in modern India

The fast-unto-death by Potti Sreeramulu and his consequent death in 1953 made the government to pass the States Reorganization Act in 1956, which dissolved the old states and new states were created based on language and ethnicity. Thus was inclusion of a new tool in the Indian constitution, so that people can demand their constitutional rights. As someone said, in India everybody knows their rights, but no one knows their duties.

But I am not writing this post to show how the act was used (exploited) over the years. I just want to present two parallel stories of fast-unto-death – one whose aim is to divide an existing state and another for peace, sans media attention.

Case 1: The 21st century Potti Sreeramulu or is he?


As I write this post, it’s been 11 days since K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR as he is popularly known) started his fast-unto-death demanding the formation of a separate Telangana state. The doctors at NIIMS, Hyderabad say that he shows signs of protein malnutrition and there is an urgent need for insertion of central intravenous lines for administration of fluids and medicines. While this happens in the hospital, the supposed Satyagraha, we see a different situation outside. The so-called future of the Telangana state (if one gets created) especially the university students, hit the streets, pelted stones on the police and vandalized public property. Students (future of Telangana) from the prominent universities in the state took to the streets, protested, burnt buses and brought the state to a halt. Some protesters even immolated themselves.

Self-immolation – a mindless concept, popularized in India by Rajiv Goswami in protest of the Mandal Commission in 1990, where neither the person who is immolated nor the purpose of his act is fulfilled.

In all this, the media, especially the Andhra Pradesh media which has about fifteen dedicated 24-hour news channels (probably the highest in the country) played a major role to track every single breath of KCR and his violent supporters, protesters, agitators…whatever you call them. The detailed follow-up of the events is so intense that you would feel that you were part of the agitation yourself, even if you are in some remote part of the world. The capitalistic media surely has a major role in a dividing the country but not always in uniting people.

Now, I am just waiting to see what happens next and what will happen to Hyderabad, if a new state is created.

Case 2: Irom Sharmila’s bounden duty, 10 years later...
Wait…let me start this case the same way as I started the previous one.

As I write this post, it’s been almost 10 YEARS since Irom Sharmila started her superhuman fast protesting the indefensible Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) that has been imposed in Manipur and most of the North-east since 1980. The Act allows the army to use force, arrest or shoot anyone on the mere suspicion that someone has committed or was about to commit a cognizable offence. The Act further prohibits any legal or judicial proceedings against army personnel without the sanction of the Central Government.

In 2006, Irom Sharmila had not eaten anything, or drunk a single drop of water for six years. She was being forcibly kept alive by a drip thrust down her nose by the Indian State. For six years, nothing solid had entered her body; not a drop of water had touched her lips. She cleaned her teeth with dry cotton and her lips with dry spirit so she would not sully her fast. Her body was wasted inside. Her menstrual cycles had stopped. Yet she was resolute. Whenever she could, she removed the tube from her nose. It was her bounden duty, she said, to make her voice heard in “the most reasonable and peaceful way”.

The humbling power of Sharmila’s story lies in her untutored beginnings. She is not a front for any large, coordinated political movement. The 34-yearold’s Satyagraha was not an intellectual construct. It was a deep human response to the cycle of death and violence she saw around her — almost a spiritual intuition. “I was shocked by the dead bodies of Malom on the front page,” Sharmila had said in her clear, halting voice. “I was on my way to a peace rally but I realised there was no means to stop further violations by the armed forces. So I decided to fast.”

Such a fast is absolutely unparalleled in the history of political protest anywhere in the world, ever. Yet you have been oblivious of her. A hundred TV channels. An unprecedented age of media. Yet both Indian citizens and the Indian State were oblivious to her.

(Case 2 excerpted from the article Irom And The Iron In India’s Soul by Shoma Chaudhury in Tehelka Magazine, Dec 05, 2009)

Read Shoma Chaudhury's complete article here.

Related links
Gandhiji’s rules of Satyagraha

Dharavi

Dharavi, the teeming slum of one million souls, where as many as 18,000 people crowd into a single acre. By nightfall, deep inside the maze of narrow lanes the slum is as still as a verdant glade. Once you get accustomed to sharing 300 sq. ft. of floor with 15 humans and an uncounted number of mice, a strange sense of relaxation sets in—ah, at last a moment to think straight. It is Asia's largest slum and lies on prime property right in the middle of India's financial capital, Mumbai.

Many here are second and third-generation residents, whose parents moved in years ago. Today's Dharavi bears no resemblance to the fishing village it once was. A city within a city, it is one unending stretch of narrow dirty lanes, open sewers and cramped huts. The residents - the Kumbhars came from Gujarat to establish a potters' colony. Tamils arrived from the south and opened tanneries. Thousands traveled from Uttar Pradesh to work in the booming textile industry. The result is the most diverse of slums, arguably the most diverse neighborhood in India's most diverse city. In a city where house rents are among the highest in the world, Dharavi provides a cheap and affordable option to those who move to Mumbai to earn their living. Rents here can be as low as Rs. 185 per month.

Dharavi also has a large number of thriving small-scale potteries and textile industries. In addition to these, there is an increasingly large recycling industry, processing waste from other parts of Mumbai. It has an estimated 15, 000 single-room factories, with an approximate annual turnover of more than Rs. 3000 crores a year.

But Dharavi lacks basic infrastructure facilities like sanitation and health. As of November 2006, there was only one toilet per 1,440 residents. Mahim Creek, a local river, is widely used by local residents for urination and defecation, leading to the spread of contagious disease. The area also suffers from problems with inadequate water supply.

An urban redevelopment plan is proposed for the Dharavi area. The plan involves the construction of 30,000,000 sq. ft. of housing, schools, parks and roads to serve the existing 57,000 families residing in the area, along with 40,000,000 sq. ft. of residential and commercial space for sale. There has been significant local opposition to the plans, largely because existing residents are due to receive only 225 sq. ft. of land each. Furthermore, only those families who lived in the area before the year 2000 are slated for resettlement. Concerns have also been raised by residents who fear that some of their small businesses in the "informal" sector may not be relocated under the redevelopment plan. The government has said that it will only legalize and relocate industries that are not "polluting."

It is now up to time to decide what will be the future of Dharavi and its millions of dependents.

(Article excerpted from articles by NGC, BBC & Wikipedia)

A wise man said...

A wise man, Anthony Gonsalves, once said in 1977 that

• The whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are sophisticated rhetorician intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity.
• Such extenuating circumstances coax me to preclude you from such extravagance.
• The coefficient of the linear, is juxtapositioned, by the haemoglobin of the atmospheric pressure in the country.
• Excuse me, please.

Anthony Gonsalves, 1977 in a file photo :P :P

Kitna badal gaya insaan...very true...

Lost Paradise - Kashmir

Where the fraternity has failed him, Providence will provide

From fleet-footed forward to plodding pensioner, the wheel’s come full circle for Mohammad Zulfakaruddin.

A member of India’s football squad that made the 1956 Melbourne Olympics semifinals, a peak it may never scale again, he’s been subsisting in Secunderabad, under a roof not his own, unknown and unsung, until the recent felicitation call-up to Delhi.

A vain bid for recognition found no takers at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) office a few years ago. Nobody believed he was an Olympian. An official issued an application form, more out of sympathy for the septuagenarian. Footwork for the proforma over, the frail figure began paper work for an Arjuna or Dronacharya award.

No honours

Mohd. Habeeb and Yousuf Khan, who played under him, received the Arjuna Award, while Syed Nayeemuddin, the Dronacharya. Strangely, Zulfakar, AP’s captain from 1958 to 66 — the game’s golden era that saw the Bengal bastion breached — found no mention in any honours list.

On the field an inside-left, he’s been left out by fame and fortune. The rare foray to the fore is to give away prizes at a local tournament.

His face glows when his football feats excite interest. “When AP won the 1963-64 Pentangular tournament in Ceylon, I received the trophy from the then FIFA President Sir Stanley Rous,” he recalled. He featured in India’s runner-up finish at Kuala Lumpur in the 1959 Merdeka Cup.

Feted by half a dozen heads of State, from President Rajendra Prasad to Shankar Dayal Sharma, Zulfakar also led Central Police Lines (CPL) for over a decade, the side boasting half a dozen Olympians!

Historic strike

Old-timers fondly remember his solitary goal in 1966 that fetched Andhra Pradesh the Santosh Trophy for the first time. Dodging the legendary Jarnail Singh, Bengal’s stopper back, he slipped the ball into the net, throwing the Quilon (Kollam) crowd into raptures. That triumph was especially sweet for AP, which had lost to Bengal in two earlier.

“Team spirit ran high, on and off the field,” he reminisced. After every match, players gathered at Hotel Madina in the Old City for tea or biriyani or at the Lateef restaurant, near Moazzam Jahi Market.

Reflected in competition, this camaraderie chipped in to cohesion and great understanding. Little wonder then that in Indian football’s finest hour, eight men were from Hyderabad.

Food for thought

With the wolf never far from his door, food is a recurring theme.

“Many players were good cooks too. Some handed out Hyderabad recipes to a Delhi restaurant, which has grown so much that Rahul Gandhi orders food from there,” he says. Soft-spoken and modest, he’s a misfit in a market-driven world.

A blinding love for Hyderabad and deferring to his father’s wishes, Zulfakar stayed back in the Twin Cities, when teammates made a beeline for Bengal, Indian football’s El Dorado.

Still dogged by injuries from his playing days, he takes recourse to religion, beard and skull cap in place. Where the fraternity has failed him, Providence will provide, perhaps.

(From The Hindu dated February 26, 2009. Article by A. Joseph Antony)

Slumdog: An over-exaggerated nothing

Excerpts from an article by Sandipan Deb

Frankly, I don't think Slumdog Millionaire deserved the Oscar for best film. And even more frankly, I don't think Resul Pookutty should have invoked "my country and my civilisation" in his acceptance speech for best sound mixing. India was not up there in the Kodak auditorium for approval. It was a British film financed by the indie subsidiary of an American studio which happened to be set in India and as a result they could not help but involve Indian actors (including Indian-origin Britishers) and shoot it in India. We crave too much for international recognition. A bit too much than is seemly. Even as all of us go around strutting, pretending to be a superpower.

But Slumdog has won, and we should really rejoice for the six children who acted in it, for they are the real stars of the film. We should rejoice for AR Rahman, though the music he has got his two Oscars for is not even of his average quality, forget his sublime and exhilarating stuff. But the Academy has decided. But I really think it's a bit too much if we take this as a victory for Indian cinema. It's a non-Indian film which happened to have an all-Indian cast. We shoot entire films abroad nowadays, especially in the US, remember?

Read the complete article here:

http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090224/1241/top-it-shouldn-t-have-won.html

An Interesting Profile

This is an interesting profile I came across on a social networking site. The description of the owner of the profile had the following content. This is interesting because if this is true, then the author has been subjected to a lot of violence. If not, this is a remarkable piece of creativity on part of the author. Either way, something’s wrong.

The author for some reason has come up with a profile (finally on a networking site,) that is a bit thought provoking about certain activities that go on in the society. I will not write anything more as the following is self-explanatory. Do leave your comments if you read this.

The following content is highly abusive and contains offensive material. Continue at your own discretion. All names have been changed to protect the interest of those involved (if it’s true)

".....am well aware that the way the world works is that i might always be dominated by bullies who r physically stronger than me and who verbally and physically abuse me like that jealous liar mur_derer Ms. ABC - my so called elder sibling 8 years older than me who did her best to destroy my body and spirit every day and night of my life .. (and beat up everybody else also) .. and whose husband Mr. DEF has un_der_world connections with Don_s and merce_naries .. i was put in jail by my violent jealous liar elder sibling Ms. ABC and i paid $000 my money to the local judicial system to get released on bail.. and by those who practise black magic, psychic practices, occult rites and other energy manipulation techiniques to play with my life.. like that $ex addicted psychic clairvoyant b@$t@rd Mr. GHI who probably trapped me with his black magic and video recorded me in his house and his b@$t@rd good for nothing lout money minded father who was monitoring my computer activity even i came to JKL(a place) .. and other 3rd rated nauseating black magic practising $ex addicted b@$t@rds Mr. MN, Mr. OP, Mr. QR,etc.

those shameless f*ck*ng d**kh**ds Mr. STU and Mr. GHI attached themselves to me during final years of college to get their work done.. no wonder everybody laughs at them - they deserve it..

also be aware of those shameless beggar scum pro$titute$ Mr. S, Ms. T, Ms. U, Ms. V who shamelessly harassed me all my life jus bcoz they lost their jobs in WXY(a place) and shamelessly attached themselves to me and my family all these years harassing me for countless favours $hamele$$ly without any self respect.. my mother had to get that sl*t Ms. U a college seat in Z college bcoz she came to my house and threw a tantrum bcoz she wanted to go to the same college as me.. apart from countless other favours that this pro$titute family has harassed me and my family for all my life just bcoz they lost their jobs in WXY and have been leaching me and my family shamelessly all my life..

even here in JKL am waiting for that oversized money minded bully Mr. A1 to transfer my phone to my name that he has cleverly registered in his name using the money that my mother gave him to buy my phone.. apart from bullying me all the time for money,etc.. his brother Mr. A2 in the WXY has un_der_world connections with don_s.also i keep away from that permanently pr*gn@nt pro$titute Ms. A3 who keeps gossiping about me to that sl*t Ms. T in WXY.

even after i came to JKL was tortured by a A4(country) national called A5 and his mother beauty who conspired with my neighbour and blasted loud music for several days and nights next to my room bcoz i did not allow her into my room and did not marry A5 ..

and also be informed of that cheat thief Mr. A6 - that Z college student who never gave me the Rs.000 that he promised me for getting the top sponsor for college show ..his N(a place) 3rd rated nauseating cheap thief bit*h Ms. A7 who stole my blue mirror work sandals,
that 3rd rated bit*h thief Ms. A8 who stole my expensive gold chain & pendant to please her sh*t ar*e brothers Mr. A9 & Mr. B1 .

coupled with my so called selfish mur_derer b@$t@rd$ p*rn-addicted @dulterou$ father Mr. B2 who enjoys himself with the servant maid Ms. B3,etc and that selfish daughter-mur_derer bit*h mother Ms. B4 .. it has been horrible surrounded by these mur_derers all my life.. the tablets that Mr. B2 gives Ms. B4 to keep her in control have still not worked..

have learnt how the world works - full of jealous liar mur_derers who will kill me bcoz they cannot bear to see me prosper .. have been surrounded by these cunning liar mu_rderer killers all my life..i hate all the criminal devilish cruel psychotic mur_derous MONEY MINDED (and sometimes $ex-obsessed) fools that have verbally and physically abused me all my life and want all of them - especially liar Ms. ABC - to be punished for their crimes....."

The Indian 'Elite'

Excerpt from Death of a Salesman and Other Elite Ironies by Tarun J. Tejpal

Politics, every single day, is killing, impoverishing, starving, denigrating, millions of Indians all across the country. If the backdrop were not so heartbreaking, the spectacle of the nation’s elite — the keepers of most of our wealth and privilege — frothing on television screens and screaming through mobile phones would be amusing. They have been outraged because the enduring tragedy of India has suddenly arrived in their marbled precincts. The Taj, the Oberoi. We dine here. We sleep here. Is nothing sacrosanct in this country any more?

What the Indian elite is discovering today on the debris of fancy eateries is an acidic truth large numbers of ordinary Indians are forced to swallow every day. Children who die of malnutrition, farmers who commit suicide, dalits who are raped and massacred, tribals who are turfed out of centuryold habitats, peasants whose lands are taken over for car factories, minorities who are bludgeoned into paranoia — these, and many others, know that something is grossly wrong. The system does not work, the system is cruel, the system is unjust, the system exists to only serve those who run it. Crucially, what we, the elite, need to understand is that most of us are complicit in the system. In fact, chances are the more we have — of privilege and money — the more invested we are in the shoring up of an unfair state.

It is time each one of us understood that at the heart of every society is its politics. If the politics is third-rate, the condition of the society will be no better. For too many decades now, the elite of India has washed its hands off the country’s politics. Entire generations have grown up viewing it as a distasteful activity. In an astonishing perversion, the finest imaginative act of the last thousand years on the subcontinent, the creation and flowering of the idea of modern India through mass politics, has for the last 40 years been rendered infra dig, déclassé, uncool. Let us blame our parents, and let our children blame us, for not bequeathing onwards the sheer beauty of a collective vision, collective will, and collective action. In a word, politics: which, at its best, created the wonder of a liberal and democratic idea, and at its worst threatens to tear it down.

And let no one tell us we need more laws. We need men to implement those that we have. Today all our institutions and processes are failing us. We have compromised each of them on their values, their robustness, their vision and their sense of fairplay. Now, at every crucial juncture we depend on random acts of individual excellence and courage to save the day. Great systems, triumphant societies, are veined with ladders of inspiration. Electrified by those above them, men strive to do their very best. Look around. How many constables, head constables, sub-inspectors would risk their lives for the dishonest, weak men they serve, who in turn serve even more compromised masters?

India’s crying need is not economic tinkering or social engineering. It is a political overhaul, a political cleansing. As it once did to create a free nation, India’s elite should start getting its hands dirty so they can get a clean country.

From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 49, Dated Dec 13, 2008

Read the complete article at

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne131208death_of.asp

Not-so-breaking news in India

A few things about which I have been reading in the newspapers during the past one year, but rarely reported in the television media. And the reasons for which I am writing this post:

1. Candles are bought only when the upper strata dies, provided the dead is/are from a so-called ‘metro’.
2. The media cannot commercialise on these kind of news.
3. More importantly, the public isn’t interested in such news.
4. Everybody wants India to become superpower by 2020 and everybody wants to do nothing.

So, the not-so-Breaking News…

1. Eight persons including 7 jawans are killed in a terrorist attack in a CRPF Group Centre in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh…were the jawans rich people?Oh…then no use having it on the ticker.
2. Twelve persons are convicted in the Bilkis Bano case. 11 get life-sentence….Bilkis who?
3. Fifteen persons, including 13 policemen are killed in naxalite raids on police stations and arms depots in Orissa’s Nayagarh district. Over 1,100 arms and one lakh live bullets are looted…thank god it didn’t happen in my city.
4. India’s first centre for Climate Change and Adaptation Research is inaugurated at Anna University in Chennai. What is the use of such a centre in a country like India, how can you commercialise on that?
5. Biranchi Das, former coach of child marathoner Budhia Singh is shot dead in Bhubaneswar. One accused arrested 23 days later…Budhia who?
6. Women’s Reservation Bill. It’s still a myth.
7. The Centre announces a relief package worth more than Rs. 330 crore for the victims of 2002 post-Godhra riots in Gujarat….lol…funny…7years later…
8. The Centre announces a Rs. 28.81 crore relief package for the next of kin of the 844 people killed and 22 injured in the October 1989 Bhagalpur riots in Bihar. Never knew something like that even happened.
9. Security forces rescue seven hostages after a 19-hour gun battle which militants in Chinore on the outskirts of Jammu…hah…Kashmir, it’s normal.
10. Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma dies during the encounter in Jamia Nagar….really?
11. Maharshtra Navnirman Sena activists beat up North Indian aspirants appearing for the RRB entrance exams for the Western region in Mumbai…you are not supposed to protest against such acts coz the upper-strata doesn’t write anything else other than CAT and GRE.
12. IAF officer killed in Naxal attack on chopper ferrying poll material from Bijapur…really! Bad naxals.